Marc Neufeldt`s Fishing Report March 5th to 19th 2008!

Hi all,

here is a summary of my fishing trip to Malindi, Kenya from March 5th to 19th :

First of all I can assure you that the situation at the coast is very peaceful and there have been no signs of conflicts/ political unrest at all.

Catharina has recovered well from her surgery and she came to the club again. So nice to see her in this good condition. Unfortunately Herbie was still in Nairobi hospital and his condition was quite unstable. We all hope that he can return to Malindi soon. Fingers crossed!

Stupidly my brand new Nikon D40x Camera broke the first day (Display showing message: "Initialization Error! Contact an approved Nikon Dealer!"…Very funny!). Therefore we only did some pics with my mobile phone:-( )

Day 1, Snowgoose: We decided to fish the Rips with lures and strip-baits. After a couple of Dorado and Wahoo hitting our lures a Stripey of approx. 110lbs took my small Pakula Cockroach and was released after 10mins. Good start!

Day 2 , Eclare: Fishing the Rips again! No Marlin strikes today but we managed to release 3 Sail. Again the odd Dorado were on site in high numbers. We got 6 incl. a nice Bull:

Day 3, Snark: We started trolling on the Banks and caught 7 Wahoo (this season always offers good size Wahoo with an average of 30lbs), 3 Dorado plus 3YFs for Shark fishing. At noon we went to the Canyons and started Shark baiting. This was a bit frustrating because Snapper were constantly damaging our bait. At least we could catch a nice Rockcod of 70lbs.

Day 4, Snark: Again we started fishing the Banks. After catching 2 Wahoo and 2 Dorado in the morning we got 2 Friggies in shallow water and instantly rigged them for live baiting. Just a couple of minutes later we had a strike from a Black Marlin on the tag line. Unfortunately the Marlin had swallowed the bait and we needed to boat it weighting 180lbs. Maybe I gave too much free spool, dunno… This simply happens sometimes.

Day 5, Snark: Trolling the Banks again. After catching 2 Wahoo, 2 Dorado, 1 Kingfish (nice one of 40lbs) and a Garfish we got a heavy strike on a Halco Lazer Pro far behind the boat on the center rigger. Surprisingly it turned out to be a Black Marlin: 145lbs! Later the day we tried for Tigers again and lost one after a couple of mins.

Day 6, Snark: This was a quiet day. The sea was very flat and it was pretty hot with few wind. No bait around and we were trolling lures outside the Banks. But no score! 1 Wahoo and 6 Dorado in the afternoon saved the day.

Day 7, Snark: Today we decided to fish up north in the Mambrui area because we were reported from a club member that some sail had appeared on the scene. March is not the best season for Sail but I was able to hook one and release it after a couple of minutes. The rest of the day it was only Wahoo (3) and Dorado (5) and some baitfish again.

Day 8, Snark: With 3 frozen Bonitos in our cool box we went to the Canyons again and put out 2 shark baits early in the morning. Around 11a.m. I got a strike on the bait that we had put on a float. This Tiger was really teasing me and I needed several tries before I finally hooked it up. Bringing the 130 to the chair I already realized that this must be a big fish. After 1 ½ hours it came up for the first time and the crew grabbed the trace but simply could not hold it. Having caught or witnessed over 35 Tigers in my life I was sure that this was my personal best. But although skipper Adi was trying to convince me to bring it in I decided to release it. After another 20 mins. the trace came out of the water again but the Tiger was still green and not ready for release. A big splash with the tail fin and it disappeared in the deep blue again. In this situation the rod holder from the chair broke (the chair was turned in a right angle to the port side … ) and I needed a helping hand to bring the rod on my legs. Fishing the 130 with heavy drag under this circumstances is no fun and I told the crew that the next time the trace is up they should quickly wrap the trace around one the clamps in the stern then. Another 20 mins. later we finally succeeded in doing so and I had released my first ever Tigershark of 1200lbs!

Day 9, Snark: Another try for Tigers of course! More current today but still good conditions for baiting. Midmorning we had a good strike on the downrigger but after a few minutes the Shark cut the wire trace. Few hours later we got another strike on the downrigger and 45mins. later my father (66 of age and still very strong!) could release a nice Tiger of 550lbs on 80lbs line. We were using a vinyl covered cable wind-on this time that approved very helpful for the lineman. This is definitely what I will use exclusively in the future for shark fishing. Running out of bait we then trolled the rest of the day catching 1 Wahoo and 2 Dorado.

Day 10, Snark: Trolling on the Banks we got 2 Wahoo, 1 Dorado and 2 Garfish and a few Bonitos. In the afternoon we prepared for Shark baiting again a got a strike pretty fast. But somehow the Dacron must had been tangled around the downrigger cable and got cut. The rest of the day was quiet and I decided to do some bottom fishing while waiting for the next strike. Got a nice Snapper (don`t know the exact type) of 25lbs in the end.

Day 11, Snark: Heading north again because Tina had 4 Blacks up yesterday while fly fishing. Actually that Angler had had a Black Marlin on his fly rod before the line broke after 15 mins. or so. Malindi area was full of bait and we caught around 10 Bonitos in an hour before going to Ngomeni. But there the situation was completely different: no bait at all! Trolling around with strip baits/lures we had 2 Sailfish strikes that we missed and 5 Wahoo and 2 Dorado + 1 Jobfish. We did some baiting with dead bait (Friggies) later and raised a Black. But obviously not hungry enough for dead bait it disappeared kinda bored after a couple of mins..

Day 12, Snark: Our last day! Fishing up north again. Got a Longfin Tuna early in the morning and a couple of Bonito in the Malindi area. Again not much bait in Mambrui so we kept trolling and had some action with Wahoo (6) and the ever-present Dorado (9). Also lost a Sail after some jumping...

Cheers + Tight Lines,

Marc